Career Hotline
Mapping out a career
Pervin Malhotra

Q I am a BA-III Geography (Hons) student and have also scored good marks in the subject. I want to know about all career prospects in this field.

A Geography is a diverse discipline that bridges the arts, social and natural sciences, providing a broad education and addressing pressing issues, including environmental change, regional and global inequalities, the transformation of a global economy and culture, ethnic segregation, urbanisation, planning, natural hazards, and many more.

And contrary to belief, geography is not merely an academic subject but one with numerous practical applications. Given the wide spectrum of its sweep, there are several career options open to geography students.

Depending on the area of specialisation at the postgraduate-level, avenues for geographers exist in cartography where they collect, combine and display cartographic information in the form of maps. They are also employed by public and private organisations engaged in urban planning and design, and by NGOs involved in population control, environment and rural development projects. After your Master’s in geography, you can also enrol for a specialised course in Town and Regional Planning, which is offered at some colleges of architecture.

Alternatively, you can also opt for a career in surveying, land valuation, environmental protection or conservation, landscape architecture, transport and tourism, travel writing, aerial photography and market research, besides teaching at the school (there is a shortage of school teachers specialising in this subject) and at the university-level.

While a large number of universities (including Delhi University) offer BA in geography, 50 others offer a B. Sc in geography, which allows you to move into geology and meteorology and quantitative research, which essentially involves number crunching (for market research and demographic surveys).

Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing are opening up new avenues for geographers.

Since geographers are directly concerned with analysing variable data on the earth’s surface, this is likely to open up vast areas in analysis and research. Geographers are also employed as forest managers, demographers in government and research organisations or as researchers in agricultural or economic institutes.

Besides, geography is also considered as a popular and scoring subject for the Civil Services (Prelims & Mains) and other competitive exams.

Plain speak

Q Our four-year old son, who is otherwise intelligent and well-behaved, has a stuttering problem. Should we be doing anything about it right now or wait till he gets into school? Do you think it is caused by nervousness? Will she outgrow it? We are worried.

A Stuttering, which affects about 5 per cent of youngsters, is best treated at the pre-school stage. It usually begins when a child is 3-4 years’ old. Boys are three times more likely to suffer from the problem.

I am no medico, but I do know that stuttering can be a frustrating and often misunderstood disability. The strange thing about it is that sometimes a person can be perfectly fluent one day, and be very influent the next. Doctors are now saying that it is caused by a neurological reason, not because we're nervous, or scared. Slowing down and thinking before we talk doesn’t always help.

However, the good news is that Scientists at the University of Sydney, Australia, have recently developed and evaluated an early intervention called the Lidcombe programme (named after a suburb in Sydney), to treat the problem. This behavioural programme is administered by the parent with guidance from a speech pathologist. The result can be measured on a 10-point scale. Once the stuttering has disappeared or vastly diminished, the second stage of the programme, which is aimed at maintaining the improvement for a year, begins.

Do consult a good speech therapist anyway.

Branching into biometrics

Q What exactly is biometrics? From where can I get more information on this subject?

A Once the stuff of futuristics and science fiction, biometrics — the authentication of identity through an individual’s unique physical or behavioural traits has been hailed as one of the top 10 emerging technologies that will change the world.

The biometric industry is growing at the rate of 300 per cent, especially after the September 11 attacks. The impact is evident from the rise in stock prices of companies in this sector.

Common physical biometrics includes fingerprints, hand geometry, retina, iris and facial characteristics. Behavioural characteristics include signature, voice, keystroke pattern and gait.

Iris-recognition based systems for access to high security areas and biometric signatures for speedy clearance of large quantities of cheques in a bank are already in use.

The challenge lies in making them more user-friendly and fool-proof (by minimising the FAR (false acceptance rate) wherein a wrong person is identified and the FRR (false rejection rate) wherein the right person is denied access.

An army of biologists, forensic and software experts are involved in research and development of new applications.

As far as further info on this subject, you only have to key in the word "biometrics" in your search engine on the Internet to be presented with a plethora of listings on this subject. So, go ahead`85 and happy browsing!

The writer is a noted career consultant

Please send in your query, preferably on a postcard, along with your full name, complete address and academic qualifications to: Editor, Jobs and Careers, The Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh-160030, or at careers@tribunemail.com